Blogs

We have a busy week and an especially busy day Wednesday September 16! Join us at the press event at the Farmers Market at 1pm to join Commissioner Scott Soares (Department of Agricultural Resources) and Commissioner Julia Kehoe (Department of Transitional Assistance) for a special announcement about a new partnership to bring increased EBT access to Massachusetts Farmers’ Markets, followed by a free cooking demonstration. Read more here!

Park Ribbon Cutting September 16, 2009 at 3 p.m.

Please join the City of Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan for the Official Ribbon Cutting of our newest gem on the Spicket River Greenway on Wednesday September 16 at 3 p.m. We're pleased to celebrate the opening of the park complete with a playground, swings, a pond overlook and community garden beds.

The CSA distribution yesterday was full of activity. Most everyone got to meet Bruce who will be taking over for Kemi since she is leaving us to go back to school. Also, the shares this week had a lot of "extras" - items not in your bin but that you could pick and choose from to suit your tastes and needs. I know that my family picked a LOT of the jalapeños but no summer squash -my coworkers think my tastes are odd. It makes for a little bit more confusion at pick-up but we appreciate everyone's patience! Also the regular shares had "lemon cucumbers" in them which confused many folks and they chose not to try them out. One super share member (super shares had received them last week) thought it was an early squash so she stuffed and baked it and said it tasted great! We hope the CSA allows you to eat healthily, in season and locally, but that it also opens up your taste buds a little!

"Extras" in this week's harvest

Sadly, this is our last week with Kemi, one of our summer interns. She and Yashira worked fantastically together and for Groundwork all summer. We will miss them both and wish them the best back at college in the fall (Providence and Holy Cross) - smart ladies!

This will be our 8th Annual Cleanup and we're looking forward to the day that is not only trash pick-up but a celebration of the Spicket River and the wonderful parks that are on it.

You can check out some of the parks on the Spicket River Greenway here!

Last year we received amazing support from Jackson Lumber and have many tools, trash bags, and gloves for use at the Cleanup, but we still need additional support and manpower. If you are interested in Supporting the Cleanup in any way, please call me at the office or you can make your donation on our website here.

If you are interested in Sponsoring the Cleanup in a bigger way, please call Kathryn or Heather at the office!

Thanks so far go out to SoBe and Covanta Energy for supporting the Cleanup.

So there are not too many vegetables, or fruits, today in the CSA share, but we're pleased that Farmer Dave has brought tomatoes today for the vegetable shares. For folks with fruit shares, there are strawberries and Shiro plums. You can check out newsletters each week here and check out a picture of the CSA share on our Flickr page!

Last week the Boston Globe published an article highlighting CSA programs and specifically Farmer Dave. A quote from Farmer Dave from the article: “It was about growing what was needed, not wasting, and working within natural forces to determine what is harvested,’’ he said. You can read the entire article here. (MS Word).

Also, this past weekend Janel and I attended and spoke at the Northeast Organic Farming AssociationSummer Conference. Our workshop (titled Overcoming the Affordability Barrier: Connecting Low-Income People to Fresh Food) was attended by approximately 30 individuals who all had a mix of experience but most importantly desire to figure out how best to provide an equal opportunity for fresh, healthy food to low-income individuals in their community. You can check out our slideshow here. (pdf). What most encouraged me Saturday was the wealth of knowledge and willingness to share triumphs and challenges in the community-we look forward to further exploring and learning how to reach our neighbors with fresh healthy food.

Come on down to the Lawrence Farmers Market tomorrow August 5th! We'll be celebrating National Farmers Market Week with lots of free, fun activities to bring people over to Appleton Way: Power 800, the Spanish language radio station, will be broadcasting live from the market from 12-2pm, salsa band Los Sugar Kings will be playing from 1-2pm as part of the Live Lawrence concert series, there will be free face painting for the kids,food demos (with free samples!) featuring market produce from the UMass Extension program, and more.Items you can buy this week include: Green Beans, Corn, Beets, Cucumbers, Green Garlic, Lettuce, Scallions, Squash, zucchini, tomatoes, Parsley, Blueberries, Peaches.

The tally for the day was 40 volunteers, over 10 bags of ice, 65 yards of soil, over 2300 feet of lumber, over 1000 screws and almost as many nails! There are also some uncounted donated energy drinks, gasoline trips, water runs, and recycling. Our fantastic volunteers built 26 garden beds for vegetables and joy to grow in and we thank them so much.

Special thanks go to

MA office of Refugees and Immigrants and the City of Lawrence Community Development Department for funding the material and supply costs.

Home Depot Reading for providing volunteers and rented tools free of charge as well as Home Depot Methuen for adding additional drill power to the day.

Tennis Lilly for extra (and much needed) generator power.

Heavenly Donuts for coffee and donuts in the morning.

Bruckman’s Lawn and Garden for plants for the beds.

New Balance, TRC Solutions, TEC, Community Development Department, Arlington Community Trabajando, The Plus Company, and Groundwork Lawrence Green Team for volunteer labor and all the other volunteers who worked so hard and brought their tools for use for the day, we could NOT have done it without you!

If you miss your newsletter somehow or want to direct your neigbor to see what yummy goodness is coming in your Farmer Dave box-check this location on our website. From here on out too-we'll be posting pictures of the share on our Flickr page-we hope that the newsletter is useful to you and that you are enjoying your share!